The summer after she graduated from law school at Loyola University Chicago, Emily Vaughan (JD ’14) returned to her alma mater as an inaugural Illinois Bar Foundation Public Interest Fellow assigned to the Community Law Center, one of Loyola’s six in-house legal clinics offering students the opportunity to contribute to society while gaining valuable hands-on training. Vaughan joined the Community Law Center full time in 2015 as assistant director, and in spring 2018, she was appointed director of the center’s new Veterans Practicum.

Under Vaughan’s supervision, third-year law students enrolled in the Veteran’s Practicum at Loyola use a Supreme Court Rule 711 license to represent veterans and their families in a myriad of civil legal matters. The practicum also includes a weekly classroom component to provide students with a theoretical overview of the lawyering skills that will be required of them in their casework.